Why Being A Millennial Is A Competitive Advantage In The Tough Restaurant Industry

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Millennials, due the size of the generation and familiarity with technology, bring a perspective that changes entire industries. How do they create change in an industry as old as the restaurant business?

Every industry is competitive, but the restaurant industry is one of the most competitive in the country. Nearly one-third of new restaurants fail within the first year, and nearly two-thirds don’t make it beyond the third year.

The threat of failure, rising rent and labor costs make it difficult to succeed in this industry. And success is particularly difficult in New York City, where skyrocketing rent prices forced celebrity chef Bobby Flay to close his legendary Mesa Grill.

When I spoke with chef and TV host Andrew Zimmern about millennials in the restaurant industry, he told me about an interesting trend: young chefs leave big cities and return to their hometowns to open restaurants. Rent is cheaper, competition is lower, and labor costs are far more manageable.

Despite this trend, some millennials embrace the challenge of succeeding in a competitive environment like New York or Los Angeles. Leah Cohen and Ben Byruch, owners of Pig & Khao in Manhattan, leverage their age and experience to run one of NYC’s hottest restaurants. Byruch runs the front of house, and Cohen is the chef.

Cohen’s name sounds familiar if you follow food television. She is a recurring judge on Chopped and Beat Bobby Flay on the Food Network and competed on the Bravo hit Top Chef.

They opened Pig & Khao five years ago after working in other restaurants in New York City and southeast Asia. Today, it is consistently listed as one of the top restaurants in New York City, including winning the 2016 Zagat award for Best Asian in NYC.

How being a millennial is an advantage

Most successful restaurant owners, particularly in the largest city in the U.S., are Gen Xers or Baby Boomers. Cohen and Byruch are both in their 30s, so by industry standards they are young.

They believe age is a competitive advantage. Why? “Since we have a lot of energy, we put all of our energy into running the restaurant,” notes Cohen. “We also put lots of energy into social media.” Cohen is very active on her social media accounts, teaching people about cooking and introducing new ingredients.

Millennials are often called “digital natives,” meaning we are the first generation to grow up with digital technology readily available. A greater level of comfort often enables us to adopt new technologies and strategies, and both Cohen and Byruch see adoptability as a big advantage in today’s marketplace.

Social media marketing is one of the greatest trends they use for their business.

Using Instagram to build the business

Instagram is a powerhouse in the social media world, boasting 600 million worldwide users. An astonishing 55% of those users are 18-29, a key demographic for business owners.

Platforms like Instagram are a great place for influencer marketing, an approach where a brand uses someone with a large following to promote a product or service.

They were originally skeptical of this approach. “People all over the country, whether for a job or a hobby, have food accounts,” says Byruch. “When people came to us asking to dine for free for a post, it seemed crazy. Now we’ve totally flipped, and now we’re on the other side.”

Leveraging Instagram to drive foot traffic is just one way they use technology to grow the business. “We are both pretty open minded about things, especially if they drive traffic,” says Byruch.

Another creative approach they used is through Blackboard Eats, a deals app for restaurants in cities like New York, L.A, and San Francisco. Instead of offering a discounted rate, Byruch and Cohen chose to offer an exclusive meal option for app users. The promotions prove to be incredibly successful.

Prepare instead of respond

Running your own business can be stressful, especially in industries where rapid change is the norm. The restaurant industry in New York City, for example, faces an interesting change with the recent minimum wage hike.

Challenges like this are easier to face when you prepare, which is the approach they take. “We pay cooks more each year. Quality is better the more you pay,” says Cohen. Slowly increasing their pay scale makes the switch easier to manage.

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